Users of digital cameras often collect a large number of digital images. This gives rise to a desire to be able to show these digital images to others in the form of a slide show. Many viewer programs usable to view digital images provide a slide show feature. The digital images are typically displayed one at a time, at a constant rate, in the order in which the digital images are stored in a folder. There is no audio accompanying the slide show. Consequently, the slide show is fairly boring to many viewers.
A product called “PhotoCinema” marketed by a Japanese company called Digital Stage allows for a fairly sophisticated slide show to be created and viewed on a computer screen of a personal computer. Digital images stored on a personal computer can be presented in a variety of sequences, and individual images in a sequence can be zoomed. A chain of multiple images can be made to move from left to right across the computer screen. A chain of multiple images can be mode to move from top to bottom across the computer screen. Music can be selected to accompany the slide show. The slide show is, however, on a computer screen. There is often significant boot time to start a personal computer, and the computer often does not have the large screen that would make viewing a slide show an enjoyable activity. The personal computer may be located in an office or other out of the way place in the home that does not have the comfortable seating and lighting of the family room, or media room. Presenting a slide show on the small screen of a personal computer in the out of the way room is therefore not as pleasing as it could be.
Apple Computer has introduced an MP3 music player called the IPOD PHOTO (a portable digital media player made by Apple Computer Inc.). Some versions of the IPOD PHOTO (a portable digital media player made by Apple Computer Inc.) have an ability to store a large number of digital images on a built-in micro hard disc drive. Digital images stored on the IPOD PHOTO can be viewed in a slide show by coupling the IPOD PHOTO directly to a television. A special AV (audio/video) cable is provided for this purpose and the IPOD PHOTO has the ability to drive a video signal and an audio signal directly to the television. Touch sensitive buttons on the IPOD PHOTO are usable to select images to be displayed on the television. This aspect of the IPOD PHOTO is very popular, and the digital images stored on the IPOD PHOTO can be displayed on a television in the home where comfortable seating is generally available. It is, however, cumbersome to use the IPOD PHOTO because the digital images generally need to be loaded onto the IPOD PHOTO before the IPOD PHOTO can be used to view those images. This inconvenience and the time required to do the downloading of images into the IPOD PHOTO is undesirable. Moreover, the slide show generated by the IPOD PHOTO is fairly simple and constant. There is a constant time-per-slide value. Watching such a slide show for more than a short period of time is generally a boring experience.
Discotheques in the past had disc jockeys (DJs) that played interesting mixes of music for patrons. There typically was no imagery or video accompanying the music. The disc jockeys of the past have been replaced with what are called video or visual jockeys (VJs). In the dance clubs of today, music is often accompanied by a rich variety of still images and video clips and light shows and other imagery and audio and video effects. The VJ may, for example, have a large expensive stack of many compact disc (CD), digital video disc (DVD) players, and mixer equipment. The VJ uses this expensive equipment to combine the output of the various CD players and DVD players in an interesting fashion to suit the mood of the patrons of the club. Still images can be seen to sweep across screens in the club from one side of the screen to another, or from top to bottom, or from bottom to top as the music is playing. The scene of view can zoom into a part of an image. The scene of view can zoom back out from a part of an image. Images can be zoomed up in size, and can be zoomed down in size. Significant artistry is often involved in making the collage and flow of pictures and video match the music so that the overall experience pleasing and has the desired impact on the audience. Providing this club experience is therefore generally expensive and requires a significant degree of sophistication.
It is desired to provide an inexpensive VJ-like experience for unsophisticated consumers who want to view snapshots in the home without having to spend a lot of time learning how to program and use specialized and expensive equipment. It is desired to provide the VJ-like experience at as low of cost a possible without having to use a general-purpose computer that is slow to boot and that may not contain the pictures that are to be viewed. It is desired to provide the VJ-like experience to users who might not possess the artistic audio-visual ability of a VJ.